


3 



PLATFOEMS AND CANDIDATES OP 1856. 



SPEECH 



OF 



HON. JOHN J. PERRY, OF MAINE, 



DELIVERED 



IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AUGUST 7, 185G. 




The Honse being in the CortJmittee of the Whole on the 
■Kate of the Union — 

Mr. PERRY said: 

Mr, Chairman: We are now on the eve of a 
presidential election — an election alike important 
to the interests of the whole country. Old party- 
issues have been settled, and new ones have taken 
their places; old party organizations have had 
their day, and gone to the tomb of the Capulets. 
A universal sentiment everywhere prevails among 
the American people to " let the dead bury their 
dead;" and they arc now turning their attention 
to the living issues now presented for their con- 
sideration. 

Amid the din of battle, and the clash of resound- 
ing arms, there is substantially but one great 
leading question which now engrosses the atten- 
tion of th€ American people: all other questions 
hold a subordinate relation, and are secondary to 
this, both in their importance and position. AH 
■our political organizations not only assent to this 
proposition, but unite in declaring its truth. 
Whether African slavery is to be extended into 
free territory, or forever hereafter restricted to its 
present limits . is a plain, direct question, so incor- 
porated into the political machinery of parties in 
this country that it has got to be squarely met 
and settled, Neitlier politicians nor political par- 
ties can ignore this issue without striking a fatal 
blow at their own existence. In the coming 
contest we are nominally to have a triangular 
fight. Three parties are in the field, under the 
lead of their several chosen standard -bearers; each 
party has erected its platform, unfurled its ban- 
ners to the breezes of heaven, and taken its posi- 
tion in the great battle-field. 

The memorable words of the great sage of 
Marshfield, " Where shall I goV are ringing in 
the ears of every American citizen; and every in- 
dependent sovereign, entitled by the laws of the 
land to exercise the elective franciiise, is called 
upon to enroll himself in the ranks of one or the 
other of these contending parties. No American 
-citizen should now content himself with being an 



idle spectator. A responsibility rests upon ecery 
man, and no patriot should seek to avoid it. In 
deciding the question, as to which of these three 
parties is right, we must look not only to their 
candidates, but their platforms; v/e must examine 
not only their professions, but their acts. As in- 
telligent men we should not merely content our- 
selves with a survey of the present, but should 
glance at the past; we should call to our aid the 
histories of bygone days, and then look ahead, 
and, as with a prophetic ken, penetrate beyond 
the misty vail which conceals the future. 

It is my purpose, upon the present occasion, 
to make a brief examination of the three plat- 
forms to which I have alluded, and, at the same 
time, invite the attention of the committee and the 
country to the candidates presented for their 
suffrages. 

Before entering upon this discussion, I desire 
to say a few words as to the relative position 
occupied by the three parties. I have before re- 
marked that there is but one great, leading issue, 
and that is the slavery question; hence, while 
the fightmay be considered nominally a triangular 
one, there is really but one question, and but two 
sides to that question; and while there are three 
parties in the field, circumstances, too arbitrary 
in their character to be controlled, will ultimately 
force each of these parties to a stand-point upon 
one side or the other. 

The "American" or Know Nothing party was 
originally made up of members from all parts of 
the Union. Its original platform did not recog- 
nize the slavery question; and for a short time 
it traveled on undisturbed by this agitating sub- 
ject. Strong and powerful as was this new po- 
litical organization, it could not withstand the 
surging waves of popular opinion. The slavery 
question, in spite of the vigilance of " sentinels, ' 
without stopping to give the "password" or 
" salutation," stalked into the halls of the secret 
order, and with the power of a despot seized the 
"charter," threw open the doors, drove out its 
members, dictated a "compromise," which re- 
sulted not in " 36O30'," but in the old lanuniarfi 



'cA^ 



.3 -' 



known as "Mason and Dixon's line." The 
Philadelphia American Convention, holden in 
June, 1855, was the end of the American Order 
as a national organization. The member.s from 
the northern and southern States, after a pro- 
tracted, stormy session, separated, never to be 
again united. I have no time to go into a history 
of subsequent events, to detail the negotiations 
since entered into to unite the party. It is suffi- 
cient for my present purpose to say that they 
have all proved failures. 

The nomination of Mr. Fillmore was made, and 
is now supported by the southern wing of the 
American party. His claims to the Presidency 
are urged by the great body of his supporters 
not so much upon the ground of his Americanism 
as upon his alleged soundness upon the slavery 
question. His friends in the South are, Gilpin- 
like, running a race with the friends of Mr. 
Buchanan, to show that the former is more relia- 
ble as a southern man than the latter; that Mr. 
Fillmore is a better friend of the South than Mr. 
Buchanan. While the Buchananites are overhaul- 
ing*the old musty files of congressional records 
to prove Mr. Fillmore an Abolitionist, the South 
Americans are after Mr. Buchanan with " sharp 
sticks," hunting up his old Free-Soil resolutions 
and other evidences of Abolition affinities, each 
in their turn declaring the other sound or unsound 
upon the slavery question, just as the circum- 
stances of the case happens to require. 

This same war has been raging in this House. 
The special friend of Mr. Buchanan, in the per- 
son of the Hon. J. Glancy Jones, of Pennsyl- 
vania, prior to the Cincinnati Convention, fear- 
ing that President Pierce and Senator Douglas 
were heading off his favorite candidate down 
South, made a speech upon this floor, the whole 
tenor of which was an elaborate vindication of 
Mr. Buchanan from the charge of Free-Soilism, 
and to show that he was as good a pro-slavery man 
as either Pierce, Douglas, or any other man; 
and the speech of the honoi-able gentleman, which 
I listened to and have since carefully read, proves 
very conclusively to my mind that he made out 
his case. The special reason assigned for this 
vindication of the "sage of Wheatland" was a 
speech from another honorable member from 
Pennsylvania, Mr. Fuller, in which he has clear- 
ly proved that Mr. Buchanan had been an old Fed- 
eralist, a Free-Soiler, a Native American, for the 
Wilmot Proviso and against it, and, in fact, that 
he had by shil'ts and turns been for and against 
almost every political question that had been be- 
fore the American people for the las' half century. 
In this game of battle-door and shuttle-cock be- 
tween the Buchanan and Fillmore parties, the 
Republicans do not choose to interfere. Ameri- 
canism, with the supporters of Mr. Fillmore, is 
a secondary question: the slavery issue with them, 
as with the friends of the pro-slavery Democra- 
cy, is the paramount idea. Whenever these two 
questions come in contact the latter overrides the 
former. We have conclusive evidence of this 
spread upon the records of this House. 

I have only time to refer to two cases proving 
this allegation. First, the organization of the 
House by the election of the present Speaker. 
After the adoption of the plurality rule, and upon 
the final ballot, every single supporter of Mr. Fill- 
more from the slave States, with two exceptions, 



voted for the honorable member from South Car- 
olina, [Governor Aiken,] a gentleman who never 
belonged to the Order, and always had been, and 
was then, in full fellowship with the Democratic 
party, and against Mr. Banks, who is an Ameri- 
can, and was the first man in the last Congress 
to raise his voice in vindication of the principles 
of the American party. 

These Americans not only voted for Governor 
Aiken, but they did it in the very teeth of a 
resolution passed at a Democratic caucus of mem- 
bers of the House, denouncing the American 
paity — which resolution the Democrats obsti- 
nately refused to repeal or modify. The second 
case to which I wish to call attention was the con- 
tested election between Mr. Allen and Colonel 
Archer, of Illinois. Mr. Allen is a Buchanan 
Democrat, and, as I have been informed, had 
always been a determined opponent of the Amer- 
ican party — denouncing the Order both in public 
and private. Mr. Archer is an American, and 
recently nominated by that party for the office of 
Governor in his State. After the question be- 
tween these two gentlemen assumed a party 
aspect, and the Buchanan Democracy supported 
Mr. Allen upon party grounds, the whole Fill- 
more party in the House voted against Colonel 
Archer, and deprived him of a seat, while nepirlj 
every member of the same party voted for Mr. 
Allen. 

Mr. Fillmore's antecedents are before the coun- 
try. His congressional record shows much in 
favor of freedom; and yet his southern friends 
say he has repudiated it all; and for this reason 
they give him their support. For proof they 
cite his official doings while President, in signing 
the fugitive slave lav/, and other acts almost 
equally offensive to the people of the free States. 
It is not my purpose to go into any extended 
remarks touching Mr. Fillmore, or the platform 
on which his friends have placed him. 1 forbear 
to do this, for the reason that there is no reason- 
able probability of his election; hence his position 
as a candidate becomes unimportant. In the 
North he is supported only by a small fraction of 
the American party. In every single free State, 
the great battle is to be fought between Fremont 
and Buchanan; while every friend of freedom 
must distinctly see the importance of a union of 
all the anti-Nebraska sentiment upon the most 
available candidate. Mr. Fillmore may carry a 
portion of the South. If a majority of any of 
the southern States can be made to believe that he 
is more subservient to the slave power than Mr. 
Buchanan, he will receive their electoral votes, 
1 otherwise he will be everywhere defeated. 
I The recent elections and other passing events, 
! make it quite certain that Mr. Fillmore is to be 
i deserted by the South. The elections in some 
half dozen of the southern States, show this fact. 
Within a few days, a leading member of the 
American party in this House, [Hon. Percy 
Walker,] announced his determination to go 
over to Buchanan. Senators Benjamin, of Louis- 
iana, Pratt and Pearce, of Maryland, and 
Jones, of Tennessee, have all gone over to Buch- 
anan. Mr. Fillmore, from present appearances, 
will not get a single electoral vote in the South, 
and it is evidently extreme folly for his northern 
friends, opposed to Buchanan, to throw away their 
suffrages upon a candidate who has no availabil- 



V 



ity, and thereby keep up a division of the anti- 
Administration forces in the North. 

I now pass along. I shall briefly notice the 
Republican platform, and the gallant standard- 
bearer of the people's party. In doing this, I 
desire first to call the attention of the committee 
to a grave and serious charge made against this 
party bv their political opponents — I mean the 
charge 'of disunion. Both the Buchanan and 
Fillmore parties have " let loose the dogs of war," 
and one universal howl of " disunion! disunion!" 
is sent up against the Repulilican party from one 
end of the country to the other. This charge is 
boldly made, and shall be as boldly met and 
refuted; not in the malicious, vindictive spirit in 
which it is presented, but in candor, fairness, 
and truth. To judge correctly of a party, it is 
necessary to examine its acts, its platform, and 
the avowed princinles of its candidates. If, in 
the application of' this test to the Republican 
party, treason is found concealed, then cry trea- 
son, and not till then. 

In the conventional proceedings of the Repub- 
lican party, I defy its most relentless enemies to 
find a single act that even tends to disunion. It 
cannot be done. No, sir; this charge of dis- 
union is made without specifications; it is an 
indictment conjured up of vague generahties, 
unsupported either by the forms of law, or the 
allegation of a single specific offense. 

The high court "of public opinion will order it 
abated, and tiie grand inquest to whom it owes 
its paternity will be discharged, both for incom- 
petency and moral corruption. 

But is there anything in the R.epublican plat- 
form which looks I'ike disunion? I have it before 
me. I have read it carefully, and I defy any 
man to point out a single word or sentence from 
which such a sentiment can be even inferred. 
I will read the first resolution in the series ado])ted 
at the Philadelphia conveniijn, which nominated 
Calonel Fremont, and let it speak for itself: 

"Resolreil, That tlio maintenance oT the principles pro- 
imil£;a:<Hl in tlie Declanuinn of Indepondence and enibodied 
in the Ffdcrnl Constitution, are os-untiiil to the preservation 
of our Rcpuliliran inli-n-sts, and tlial the Fedfral Coiutitu- 
lion, the rislits of the State?, and ihe union of the Stales, 
must and sliould be preserved." 

In this resolution, the Republicans assembled 
from all parts of the Union solemnly pledge them- 
selves to the country that " the union of the 
States must and should be preserved." Upon 
this platform, every Republican in the country 
stands to-day pledged to stand by the doctrines 
of the Declaration of Independence, the Federal 
Constitution, and the Union. With this decla- 
ration of Republican principles staring them in the 
face, the advocates of slavery cxtmsion, both 
in the Buclianan and Fillmore parties, have the 
audacity to charge the R,cpublican party with dis- 
union. So much for the shameless perversion of 
truth — so much to the disgrace and dishonor of 
two political parties, who, to hide their own 
political deformities, band together to libel and 
slander their nei;jhbor. 

But is there anything about the past life or 
present position of the Republican nominee fur 
the Presidency, which will justly warrant those 
who oppose him in charging his party with dis- 
union.' Nothing, sir. And I here challenge his 
opponents to find a single act of his whole life, 



either public or private — a single word or sentence 
by him spoken in the Senate, on the stump, at 
the fireside, or in any other place, where he has 
ever advanced a sentiment, in any degree, how- 
ever remote, in favor of disunion. 

He has accepted a nomination for the Presi- 
dency in a letter from which I will read an ex- 
tract: 

" New York, 18.56. 

"Gentlemen : You call me to a hish responsibility by 
placing nie in the van of a great movement by the people 
of the United estates, who, witliout regard to past difler- 
enccs, are uniting in a common efTort to bring back the ac- 
tion of the Federal Government to the principles of Wash- 
ington and Jetl'erson. 

"Compreliending tlie magnitude of the trust which they 
have declared themselves willing to place in my hands, 
and deeply sensible of the honor which their unreserved 
confidence in this threatening position of the public affairs 
implies, I feel Hint I cannot better respond than by a sin- 
cere de-claralion that, in the event of my election to the 
Presidency, I should enter upon the execution of its duties 
with a si[igle-hearted delerniination to promote the good ol 
th.e vholc country, and to direct solely to this end all the 
power of the Government, irrespective of party issues, and 
regardless of sectional strifes." ***** 

" Trusting th.at 1 have a heart capable of comprehending 
om whale country, w'lXh its varied interests, and contident 
that patriotism exists in all parts of the Union, I accept the 
nomination of your convention, in the hope that I may be 
enabled to serve usefully its cause, which I consider the 
cause of constitutional freedom. 

" Verv respectfully, your obedient servant, 

"J. C. FREMONT." 

After his nomination. Colonel Fremont was 
waited upon by the New York delega;ion, and in 
a short speech made to them, among other things 
uttered the following noble sentiments: 

" If T am elected to the high office for which your par- 
tiality has nominated me, I will endeavor to administer the 
Government according to the spirit of the Constitution, as 
it was interpreted by the great men who framed and adopted 
it, and in such way as to preserve both liberty and the 
Union." 

And yet the P^.epublican party are branded art 
(lisunionisls. Sir, 1 hurl back the charge. I brand 
it as a perversion of every principle of truth and 
fair dealing. I appeal to all honest American 
citizens to judge between the accusers and the ac- 
cused, to stamp these assumptions with the scorn 
they richly merit. So much for these srroundless 
charges of disunion, made against the P^epublican 
party. But I will not leave this part of my sub- 
ject without carrying the war into the enemy's 
camp. I here charge, that the party which sup- 
ports James Buchanan for the Presidency is the 
disunion party of this country, and I will prove 
it. The very men that control tlie destinies of 
the Buchanan pro-slavery Democracy, have for a 
I'long serii'S of years boldly threatened disunion, 
ijand I will show it to a demonstrati(^n. 
ll In January, 1850, an honorable gentleman, then 
jia member of this House from Mississippi, now 
l! a member of the Senate from that State, [Gov. 
[' Brown,] is reported to have said: 

" We of the South have ever been fast friends of the 
Union." « * * " If you fancy our devotion to the 
] Union will keep us in the Union you are mistaken. Our 
:j love for the Union ceases with the justice of the Union.'' 
* » * '• i tell you candidly we have calculated llie 
|; vnhie of the Union. Your injustice has driven us to it. 
i Your oppression justifies me to day in discussing the value 
I of the Union, and I do it freely and learlessly." * * * 
' " Does any man desire to know at what and lor what cause 
I' I would dissolve the Union } I will tell him at the first mo- 

I meiii after you consuiniuaie your first act of aagression 

I I upon slave properly, i would declare the Union dissolved, 
and for t.iis rcasou': such an act, perpetrated after ihe warn- 



ings we have given yoii, would evince a settled purpose to 
interpose your autliority in the management of our domestic 
affairs, thus degrading us from our riglitful position, as 
equals, to a state of dependence and subordination." — Con- 
gressional Golie, vol. 21, part 1, pp. %^8, 259. 

In February, 1850, Mr. Stanton, of Tennessee, 
then a member of this House, among other things, 
reiTiarked: 

" But if California be forced upon us without such an ad- 
justment of the questions involved in that measure, I shall 
he ready to make the final struggle upon this very ground. 
I shall be prepared to go with the southern people in what- 
ever they may determine, even though it be to abandon the 
Union,' when the rights of the southern States cannot be 
otherwise protected." — Congressional Glole, vol. 21, part 
1, p. 350. ' 

At the same session of Congress, in the debate 
which preceded the election of Speaker, Mr. 
Colcock, of South CaroUna, said: 

" 1 here pledge myself, that if any bill should be passed 
at this Congress abolishing slavery in the District of Colum- 
bia, or incorporating the Wilniot proviso in any form, 1 will 
introduce a resolution into this House, declaring, in terms, 
that this Union ouglit to be dissolved." — Con^ressionul 
Globe, vol.21, parti, p. 29. 

In December, 1849, an honorable member from 
Georgia, [Mr. Toombs,] then a member of the 
House, and now a Senator from said State, in a 
apeech in this House, said: 

" I do not, then, hesitate to avow before this House and 
the country, and in the presence of the living God, that if, 
by your legislation, you seek to drive us from the Territo- 
ries of California and New JVIexico, purchased by the com- 
mon blood and treasure of the vv'hole people, and to abolish 
slavery in this District, thereby attempting to fix a national 
degradation upon half the States of this Confederacy, I am 
for disunion. And if my physical courage be equal to the 
maintenance of my convictions of right and duly, I will 
devote all I am and all I have on earth to its consumnia- 
lion." — Congressional Globe, vol. 21, part 1, p. 28. 

Another honorable Representative from Georgia, 
now a member of this House, [Mr. Stephens,] 
upon the same day, in following Mr. Toombs, 
said: 

"[ tell that gentleman, [Mr. Baker,] and [ tell this 
House, whether he believes it or not, or whether the people 
of the North believe it or not, that the day in which aiigres- 
Bion is coiisiimmated, upon any section of the country^ 
much and deeply as I regret it — this Union is dissolved. 
However mucji gentlemen may refuse to believe it, they 
will find it true." * * * * " We do not intend to 
submit to aggression on our rights, and I tell this House 
that every word uttered by my colleague meets my hearty 
response. [Applause.]" — Congressional Globe, vol.21, part 
l,p. 29. 

Mr. Meade, of Virginia, a member of the 
House, in December, 1849, in a speech, said: 

" But, sir, if the organization of this House is to be fol- 
lowed by the passaae of their bills, (admitting California 
and adopting the Wilmot iiroviso,) 1 trust in God, sir, that 
my eyes have rested upon the last Speaker of the House of 
Uepresentatives." — Cungressional Globe, vol. 21, part 1, 
page 26. 

These declarations come not from members of 
the Republican party, but from the leaders of 
the Buchanan Democracy; from gentlemen who 
stand in the front ranks of that party. In look- 
ing over tlie records of Congress for the last ten 
years, I fii'id the same threats of disunion ail the 
way along, coming in every single instance from 
men opposed to the Republican party. But I 
will not confine iny examinations to the history 
of the past, but will now proceed to make certain 
extracts from the speeches and writings of honor- 
able gentleinen upon this floor, in the Democratic 
party, since the meeting of the present Congress. 

In the House, December 13, (Appendix to 



Congressional Globe, page 47,) Mr. WalkeRj- 
of Alabama, said: 

" After all, it is not tlie Union— the Union alone— upon 
which the reflecting man of this country bases his hopes 
and rests his affections. With him the IJnion is secondary 
in importance to the principles it was designed to perpetuate 
and establish." 

Mr. Bennett, of Mississippi, in the House,. 
December 22, (Appendix to Congressional Globe, 
page 48,) said: 

" When you tell me that you intend to put a restriction 
on Ike Territories, I say to you that upon that subject ttie 
South is a unit, and will not submit to any such thing." 

On the 20Lh of December, in the Flouse, (Con- 
gressional Globe, page 61,) Mr. McMullin, of 
Virginia, said: 

'■ And f tell you, sir, and I want the country to know it; 
I want the gentlemen from the free States, oar Republicans, 
our Seward Republicans, our Abolitionists, or whatever 
else they may be called, to know it, that if you restore the 
Missouri compromise or repeal the fugitive slave law, this 
Union will be dissolved. 

" I hope that if any gentlem.an deems I do not properly 
represent the state of public feeling in the South, he will 
correct me." 

In the House, on the 4th of January, Mr. 
EoYCE, of South Carolina, (Congressional Globe, 
page 143,) said: 

"That party which places itself upon the position of 
giving power to the North, will eventually succeed ; and 
when that party does succeed, in my opinion the Unioa 
will be at an end." 

In the House, March 13, (Appendix to Con- 
gressional Globe, page 23U,) Mr. Letcher, of 
Virginia, said: 

" So far as the South are concerned, sir, I will tel! you 
now what I have no doubt will be the tact — what I be- 
lieve firmly and conscientious^, that if you, the Repub- 
licans, should have power here, and uuderir.ke to pa.ss 
measures to carry out the principles which you [>rotess, yoo 
would find that we had spirit enough to separate from you, 
and make the'^effort, at least, to take care of ourselves." 

In the House, April 9) Hon. E. S. Shorter,. 
of Alabama, said: 

" You have thorouglily aroused the southern States to a 
sense of their danger. You have caused them, coolly to- 
estimate the value of the Union: and we are determined 
to maintain our equality in it, or independence out of it." 

" The South has planted itself where it intends to stand 
or fall, Union or no Union — and that is, upon the platform 
laid down by the Georgia convention." 

I could go on, and read from other speeches 
containing the same sentiments, delivered by 
other members of the same party. I make no 
comtnents upon what I have read; but leave the 
committee and the country to judge for them- 
selves what party in this House threatens dis- 
union. 

There is another assumption set up by both 
the Fillmore and Buchanan parties, which 1 desire 
specially to notice. 1 shall introduce what I have 
to say upon this point by reading from a speech 
recently delivered by Mr. Fillmore at Albany, 
New York. In that speech, while alluding to the 
Republican party, he said: 

" We see a political party presenting candidates for t.be 
Presidency and Vice Presidency, selected for the first time 
from the free Slates alone, vvitti the avowed purpose of 
electing these candidates by suffrages of one part of the 
Union only, to rule over the whole United States. Can it 
be possible that those who are engaged in such a measure 
can have seriously reflected upon the coiiseqiK'iices which 
must inevitably lollow, in case of success.' [Cheers.] Can 
they havi^ the madness or the folly to believe that our 
southern brethren would submit to be governed by such a, 
Chief Magistrate? [Cheers.]" 



In his closino: remarks he went through tlie old 
farce of" dissolving the Union." Sucli a speech, 
from such a source, must be not only a matter of 
extreme surprise, but deep regret, to patriotic 
men of all parlies. Here we have tlie mortifying 
spectacle |ircseijti'd, of a man who has been once 
President of the United States, and the candidate 
of a respectable party for reelection — declaring 
in substanci', on a public occasion, that if an op- 
posing candidate, representing an equally respect- 
able and much larger party, is elected, the South 
ought not to submit, but would be justified in 
going into open rebellion, breaking up the Gov- 
ernment, and destroying the Union. 

But Mr. Fillmore is not alone in Bering sen- 
timents of this character. Many of his support- 
ers indulge in the same strain of remarks. Neither 
are these threats of insubordination confined ex- 
clusively to Fillnu)re men. Almost every Buch- 
nnan Democrat vvTio has spoken upon the ques- 
ation since the nomination of Colonel Fremont, 
has uttered similar sentiments. We have had 
speech upon speech in this House, from gentle- 
men who declare that the election of Colonel Fre- 
mont would be an end of the Union. The Buch- 
anan and Fillmore presses are thundering forth 
the same revolutionary sentiments in all parts of 
tfic Union, while th.eir stump orators are breath- 
ing " fire and sword" in case the Republican can- 
didate i.s elected. 

Are Mr. Fillmore, and the men who put fdrth 
tlicse threats, sincere and honest in what they 
aay .' If so, into what kind of a position do they 
place themselves? It is a declaration that, in a 
certain contingency, they boldly strike for a rev- 
olution and civil war, to end in a certain dissolu- 
tion of the Union. And what is that contingency ? 
Nothing but this: If a majority of the legal elect- 
ors in this country exercise their constitutional 
rights, and elect the man of their choice to the 
Presidency, then treason is to run rampant, and 
the Union is to be sundered to atoms. These 
threats are a stab aimed at the very vitals of the 
Confederacy. It is a declaration put forth that 
tlie majority shall no longer rule. These men, 
and these parties, declare, not only that the ma- 
jority shall no longer rule, but they go for striking 
down the individual right of the elector, and 
undertake to dictate to the sovereign people, and 
Bay to them that they must vote for certain can- 
didates, or we will dissolve thG»Union. They 
usurp the authority of tyrants, and, Louis Napo- 
leon like, would comjiel every American citizen 
to vote with cudgels brandished over their heads, 
and bristling bayonets pointed at their bosoms. 

The Constitution of our common country con- 
tains the great fundamental principles t1iat must 
govern in theelection of a President. It expressly 
provides that the majority shall rule; and the 
man or the party that preaches a different doc- 
trine, instigates and encourages rebellion against 
it. I want it to go to the country, that the fol- 
lowers of Messrs. Buchanan and Fillmore, upon 
this floor, are 0[ieuly declaring that the election 
of Mr. Fremont will be an end of the Union^ 1 
want the country to know what parties in this 
House and the Senate threaten rebellion — resist- 
ance to the Constitution of the country and di.s- 
vnion of the people — and the peo|)le shall know 
it. If tlie Constiuition of the country is to be 
trampkd in the dust — if the majority are here- 
after to be denied the right to rule — if revolution 



is to be threatened, and the country menaced 
I with civil war — for exercising a constitutional 
iriiiht in a legal manner — then the year 1856 
'is as good a lime to try that question as any 
i other. And I here say to our Buchanan and 
j Fillmore friends, whether North or South, we 
j plant ourselves firmly upon the rock of the Con- 
stitution; we cast your admonitions to the whis- 
tling winds; your threats pass away from our 
memories like a " tale that is told;" we are Amer- 
ican citizens, and we will exercise the rights of 
j American citizens so long as we have a Consti- 
tution or a country. 

Of Mr. Buchanan I shall speak respectfully. 
Against him, as a jirivate citizen, 1 have no words 
of reproach to utter; but as a candidate for the 
highest office in the gift of the American people, 
his official acts are public property, and I have a 
right to review them. That he commenced hia 
public career a Federalist, his friends do not deny; 
that he opposed the war of 1812, and denounced 
Mr. Madison and the Democratic party, is equally 
certain. In his 4th of July oration at Lancaster, 
Pennsylvania, in 1815, a copy of which I havo 
before me, he speaks of the " diabolical passions" 
of the Democracy; he charges President Madison 
with " preferrins: his private interest to the pub- 
lic good;" and when speaking of his administra- 
tion says: " Time will not allow me to enumerate 
all the other wild and wicked projects of the Dem- 
ocratic Administration." 

But the great question the American people now 
desire to have answered is, what is Mr. Buchan- 
an's past record and present -pfisition upon the 
slavery question ? 

For fear I may be accused of misrepresenting 
his opinions, I will let his own friends answer the 
interrogatories. The Richmond Enquirer, thg 
leading Democratic paper in the whole South and 
in the Union, in its issue of July 15, 1356, con- 
tains an article of three columns, giving the record 
of Mr. Buchanan's votes and acts, and winds up 
as follows: 

i' 1. In 1836, Mr. P.ucluinan siipporloj a hill to prohibit 
the circulation of AbuUtioii papers through the mails. 

"2. In the same year he proposed and votcj lor the ad- 
n)ission of Arkansas. 

"3. In 1836-37, lie denounced, and voted to reject, peti- 
tions lor tilt; abolition of'slavery in tin; District of Columbia. 

"4. In 1837, he voted for Mr. Calhoun's famous resolu- 
tions, defining the rights of the States, and the limits of 
Federal authority, and afiirmins; it to he the duty of tha 
Government to protect and uphold the institutions of th« 
South. 

"5. In 1838-;i9 and MO, he invariably voted with soulhera 
Senators asainst the consideration of anti-slavery petitions. 

"6. In 1844-45, he advoealed and voted lor tlie annexiv- 
lion of Texas. 

'■7. In 1847, he suftainod the Clayton compromise. 

"8. In 1850, he proposed and urged the extension of the 
Missouri compromise to the I'acific ocean. 

" 9. I5ut he promptly acquiesced in the compromise of 
1850, and employed all his iiilluence in favor of the laithl'ul 
execution of the fugitive slave law. 

"10. In 1851, be remonstrated against an enactment of 
the Pennsylvania Legislature tor obstructing the arrest and 
return of fuirilive slaves. 

" II. In 1854, he negotiated for the acquisition of Cuba. 

" 12. In 185t>, he approves the repeal of the .Missouri re- 
striction, and supports the principles of the Kansas-No- 
braska act. 

" 13. He never gave a vote against the interests olT slavery, 
and never uttered a word which could pain the most eeusi- 
live soulhern heart." > 

I have e.s;amined the records of Congress, and 
find they correspond with ihe statements of the 
Enquirer. I have a large number of Demo- 
cratic papers, which I should like to put upon 



6 



the stand to show Mr. Buchanan's position upon 
the slavery question, but have only time to read 
a single extract from the Mobile Tribune, the 
leading Democratic paper in Alabama. That 
paper, in a recent number, says: 

" Mr, Buchanan now stands on the platform which guar- 
anties to t!ie South everything whicli she has ever de- 
manded, ajid is himself tlie standard bearer of a party 
warring to the death with Free-Soilisni." 

I call upon all northern men to look the record 
Mr. Buchanan's friends make up for him, square 
in the face, without dodging, and then, as honest, 
liberty-loving men, swallow the dose, if they can, 
by voting for him. 

But, as Mr. Buchanan some months since pub- 
lished himself dead, it may be interesting to look 
a little after his " remains." 

In a speech at Wheatland, to the Keystone 
Club, soon after his nomination, he said: 

"Gentlemen, two weeks since I should have made a 
longer speech ; but now ( have been placed upon a platform 
of whicli I most heartily approve, and that can speak for 
me. Being the representative of the great Democratic 
party, and not simply James Buchanan, 1 must square my 
■conduct to the platform of that party, and insert no new 
plajik, nor take one from it." 

Thus the great Pennsylvanian, becoming tired 
of himself , " shuffled off this mortal coil," quietly 
laid himself down upon the thorny bed prepared 
by his political doctors at Cincinnati, squared his 
stalwart frame to its unnatural dimensions, and 
with his dying words declared, " this is the last 
of James Buchanan." 

"The departed, the departed! 
They visit u- in dreams ; 
And they glide above our memories 
Like shadows over streams." 

As we are referred to the Democratic platform 
for an exposition of Democratic principles, I will 
call the attention of the committee and country 
to some of its doctrines. This platform is an 
anomaly. It first treads rudely upon the memo- 
ries of the past, and gives us the old Democratic 
platform of bygone days. It copies the old res- 
olution upon slavery, originally framed by the 
pure-minded and dec[)ly lamented Silas Wright: 

"9. That Congress has no power underthe Constitution 'o 
interfere with or control the domestic institutions of the 
several States, and that all such States are the sole and 
proper judges of everything appertaining to their own af- 
fairs not prohibited by the Constitution." 

It then appends the " patchv/ork" of the Dem- 
ocratic Convention of 1852: 

" Resolicil, That the I'oregoing proposition covers, and 
was intended to embrace, the whole subject ofslavery agi- 
tation in Congress, and therefore the Democratic party of 
the Union, standing on this national platform, will abide by 
and adhere to a faiihl'iil execution of the acts known as the 
compromise measures settled by Congress. 

" Resoli^cl, Tiiat the Democratic party will resist all at- 
tempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation 
of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the 
attempt may be made." 

Here I call the special attention of the country 
to this fact: that the Democratic party, four years 
ago, solemnly resolved to " abide by and adhere 
to" the " compromise measures settled by Con- 
gress," which not only includes the compromises 
of 1850, but those of 1820. Having falsified all 
these pledges by their acts, the Deinocratic parly 
a^ain indorse them, and in the same string of 
resolutions at Cincinnati repudiate them, in the 
following resolve: 

" Resoti-cd, The American Democracy recognize and 
adopt the principles contained in the organic laws estab- 
Bslung tlie Territories of Kansas and Nebraska, as embody- 



ing the only sound and safe solution of the slavery ques- 
tion." 

Here is a direct, unqualified indorsement and 
approval of the repeal of the " Missouri compro- 
mise " — the sole object of which was to introduce 
slavery into Kansas, and make that Territory a 
slave State. 

Here, in this Democratic platform of 1856, we 
find distinctly embodied the following proposi- 
tions: 

First— .^gainst all slavery agitation. 

Second — For slavery agitation. 

Third — To abide by the compromjses; and 

Fourth — To break them at pleasure. 

The approval of the repeal of the Missouri 
compromise by the Cincinnati convention is not 
only an indorsement of that wicked measure, but 
a distinct justification of all the evils and enormi- 
ties that have flowed from it. 

Yes, Mr. Chairman, there has not been a 
" border ruffian" invasion into Kansas but what 
is here indirectly indorsed by the Buchanan De- 
mocracy. The repeal of the Missouri compro- 
mise has been the cause of the horrible, revolting 
scenes witnessed in Kansas. It has pointed the 
highwayman's rifle — whot the assassin's dagger — 
lighted the torch of the incendiary — invaded the 
sanctity of the domestic fireside — made %vive« 
widows, and children orphans — it has sacked 
villages and burnt cities — it has sounded the toc- 
sin of civil war, and brandished the fiery torch of 
disunion in every direction, until its dismal glare 
threatens the very existence of our Government. 
And yet the Buchanan Democracy say that th« 
measures which caused all these frightful evils 
contain " the only sound and safe solution of the 
slavery question!" 

The Cincinnati platform further declares Con- 
gress has no power to prohibit slavery in the 
Territories, when it resolves in favor of " non- 
interference by Congress with slavery in the Ter- 
ritories." 

This is a new plank. Formerly this principle 
was applied only to the States: now it is extended 
to the Territories. Thus the Democratic party 
have become wiser than all the revolutionary- 
fathers — wiser than Washington, Adams, Jef- 
ferson, Madison, Monroe, Jackson, and Polk, who 
all signed bills restricting or prohibiting slavery 
in the Territories, and gone over, soul and body, 
to the doctrines of the slavery propagandi. 

But there is still another important matter t© 
which I will specially call the attention of the 
American people. The convention which nom- 
inated Buchanan expressly abandoned the doe- 
trine of " squatter sovereignly," the only reason 
that has ever been urged by the Democrats of the 
free States as a justification for the repeal of the 
Missouri compromise. The only resolution of 
that convention which recognizes tbe right of the 
people of a Territory to do anything while in a 
territorial condition, is in the following words: 

" Resolved, That we recognize the right of the p:;oplc of 
all the Territories, including Kansas and Ni-braslia, acting 
through the fairly expressed will of the majority ol' actual 
resi<lents, and, whenever the number of their inhabitant* 
ju-tilies it. to li)rm a constitution, with or without domesiia 
slavery, and be admitted into the; Union upon terms of pe^- 
fect equality with the other States." 

Is the right of the settlers in aTerritory to legis- 
late either for or against slavery here recognized r 
Does it give them a single prerogative to " regu- 
late their own affairs in their own way .'" Not 



one. It simply, in a certain contingency, gives 
tliem the right to perform a single act — to wit: 
" form a constitution;" and when this is done, 
tliis, the only act they are by the pro-slavery 
Democracy allowed to perform, is subject to the 
will of Congress, which can admit or reject them 
nt pleasure. Thus has " squatter sovereignty," 
the great boasted principle of the right of the ])eo- 
ple of the Territories to self-government, about 
4 which there has been so much ado, been crucified 
in the house of its friends. 

The Richmond Enquirer, in a recent number, 
after reciting Mr. Buchanan 's antecedents in favor 
of slavery, confirms this view of the action of the 
Cincinnati Convention. It says: 

" Tliesp con^-idorations (in which men of all parties in 
tlie genera! will concur) afl'ord a clue to ascertain and de- 
termine his nieanini; and opinions as to squattersovereijjnty. 
The Nebraska hill has been charged with ambiguity; yet it 
is hard to suspect tlie majority in Congress, who enacted it, 
with trauduli;nt intention. The changed phraseology em- 
ployed on the same subject in the Cincinnati platform, was 
adopted in order more explicitly and fully to repudiate the 
idea of siiuatucr sovereignty." 

Without word or comment, I place before the 
people of the country two resolutions upon this 
subject, passed at the convention which nomin- 
ated Colonel Fremont, with an extract of a letter 
from the Republican candidate to a meeting in 
the New York Tabernacle, written only a few 
months since: * 

" Resolved. That Kansas should be immediately admitted 
as a State of this Union, with her present free constitution, 
a-s at once the mostelTectual way of securing to her citizens 
tJie enjoyment of the rights and privileges to which they are 
entitled,' and of ending the civil strife now raging in her 
Territory. 

<■' Resohcd, That the Constitution confers upon Congress 
»overei2ii power over the Territories of the United States 
for their 20 vern men t; and that in the exercise of this power, 
it is both the right and the imperative duty of Congress to 
prohibit ill the Territories those twin relics of barbarism, 
polygamy and' slavery." 

" i am opposed to slavery in the abstract and upon prin- 
eiple, sustained and made habitual by long-settled convic- 
tions. While I am inflexible in the belief that it ouulunot 
to be interfered with where it exists under the shield of 
State sovereignty, I am inflexibly opposed to its extension 
on this continent beyond its present limits." — John C. Fri- 
mont. 

I have only time to call your attention to one 
more plank in the Buchanan platform: 

"Fifthly— Reso^icrf, That the Democratic party will expect 
from the next Administration every proper etTort to be made 
to insure our ascendency in the Gulf of Mexico, and main- 
tain a permanent protection of the great outlets through 
which are emptied into its waters the products raised on 
the soil, and the commodities created by the industry of the 
people of our Western valleys, and the Union at large." 

This is a bid for the votes of " fillibusters" — 
a covert attempt to seize Cuba by force — involve 
us in a war with Spain, with the view of the sub- 
sequent annexation of that island to the United 
States, to strengthen and perpetuate slavery. 
This doctrine, if carried out, would be nothing 
short of wholesale piracy. 

This resolution only indorses the official acts 
of Mr. Buchanan while Minister to Great Brit- 
tain. In a conference he held with the American 
Ministers to France and Spain, at Ostend, they 
offered Sjmin two hundred millions of dollars for 
Cuba, which she refused; they then issued the 
famous "Ostend manifesto," of which the fol- 
lowing is an extract: 

'• .-M'ter we shall have offered Spain a price for Cuba far 
beyond its present value, and this shall have been refused, 
it will then be time to consider the question, does Cuba in 
tt>e possession of Spain seiiously endanger our internal 



peace and existence of our cherished Union ? Should this 
question beanswered in the alRrmative, then by every law, 
human and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from 
Spain, if we possess the power. 

"Jamks Buchanak, 
" John V. Mason, 

" PlKRRE SOULE. 

•' Aix La CnArE!,i,E, Odohcr 18, 1854." 

As to what was Mr. Buchanan's motive in this 
transaction, I will again call to the stand one of 
his own confidential friends — the Charlcstoiu Mer- 
cury. That paper says: 

" But, in order that the absurdity of the charge of Mr. 
Buchanan's being a ' Free-Soiler' may, if possible, become 
apparent, we need only cite the fact, that, two years ago, 
he signed the Ostend manifesto, a document whose sole 
ohject was to acquire Cuba, out of which two or three slavu 
States could have been formed." 

Here his sole object is declared to have been to 
acquire territory out of which to make " two or 
three slave States." In this connection, I will 
read a resolution passed at the Philadelphia con- 
vention, and an extract of a letter from Colonel 
Fremont, accepting his nomination, and invite 
the people of the country to read and consider for 
themselves: 

"Resolved, That the highwayman's plea, that 'might 
makes right,' embodied in the Ostend circular, was in every 
respect unworthy of American diplomacy, anil would bring 
shame and dishonor upon any Government or people that 
gave it their sanction." 

" I concur in the views of the convention, deprecating 
the foreign policy to which it adverts. The assumption, that 
we have the rigiit to take from another nation its domains 
because we want them, is an abandonment of the honest 
character which our country has acquired. To provoke 
hostilities by unjust assumptions would be to sacrifice the 
peace and character of the country, when all its interest* 
might be more certainly secured, and its objects obtained, 
by just and healing counsels, involving no loss of reputa- 
tion." — John C. Fremont, in his letter accepting the nomin- 
ation for the Presidency, July 8, 1856. 

The more closely we examine the. past history 
and present position of Mr. Buchanan and the 
platform upon which he has lost his personal 
identity, the more clearly do we discern the fact, 
that he is but the representative of a single sec- 
tion of this country. He is the southern candidate, 
the special representative of three hundred and 
fifty thousand slaveholders .at the South, and to 
carry out their schemes and their policy he is a 
pledged man. If the people of this country de- 
sire another four years ' " reign of terror," if they 
want civil war and border rufl^anism, instead of 

geace and quiet, they have only to elect James 
uchanan, and they will have it all. 
The convention which nominated Mr. Buch- 
anan, formally, by resolution, indorsed the ad- 
ministration of Franklin Pierce; while the former 
is publicly pledged to carry out the policy of the 
latter. 

But "I turn away from this dark picture, over 
which hangs the black pall of slavery, to the 
sunshine and cloudless sky. At this trying crisis 
in the history of our Government, it is with 
patriotic pride that the friends of the Constitution 
and the Union point to a man, doubtless raised 
up by the hand of Providence to lead the legiona 
of freedom to victory. The nomination of Colo- 
nel Fremont came directly from the people. 
Appalled at the rising, overshadowing popularity 
of our gallant leader, the cohorts of slavery are 
pouring out the pent-up vials of their wrath and 
fury in vituperation, slander, and falsehood, upon 
his devoted head. These defamcrs of the moun- 
tain pathfinder seem to have forgotten that they 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiii 



themselves, only a few short years oi 
ago, paid the most exalted tribute to hi; 
genius, and hard-earned fame. 

The Charleston Mercury of September 24, 1847, 
bore the following testimony to the character and 
ability of Colonel Fremont: 

" Tlie marked and brilliant career of Colonel Fremont 
has arrested g:jneral attention and admiration, and has been 
watched with a lively interest by his fellow citizens of 
South Carolina. Charleston, particularly, is proud of him ; 
and in the reputation which he has at so early an age 
achieved for himself, she too has a sliare." 

The Columbia South Carolinian says: 
" In early life his talents were nurtured by gentle hands ; 
in approaching manhood he was upheld by generous and 
patriotic men — in lilt development of his genius South Car- 
olina encouraged him by he- support, and presented Jiim 
with a sword, in token of her appreciation of the use he 
bad made of liis talents, and the energy and force of char- 
acter he had exhibited in his daring etiorts to add to the 
science of liis country." 

In 1848, Hon. John A. Dix, in a speech in the 
Senate of the United States, in favor of ascertain- 
ing and paying certain claims in California, deliv- 
ered March 20, indorsed Colonel Fremont as fol- 
lows: 

"In the execution of these objects, the young and accom- 
plished officer at the head of his troops, Colonel Fremont, 
exhibited a combination of -.energy, promptitude, sagacity, 
and prudence, which indicated the iiighest capacity for civil 
and military command; and, in connection with wliat he 
has done lor the cause of science, it has given him a repu- 
tation at home and abroad, of which men much older and 
more experienced than himself might well be proud." 

Democratic papers in* my own State, only a 
few short inonths. ago, were his greatest eulo- 
gizers. The Bangor Democrat said: 

'• Fremont's whole life has been spent in adding to the 
glory and renown of his common country." 

The Augusta Age, speaking of Colonel Fre- 
mont, said: 

" He is too much attached to the Union to join any party 
which ' does not keep step to its music' " 

The Saco Deinocrat said: 

"Colonel Fremont, by all his actions, has shown himself 
one of the first men of the country. His sympathies are all 
with the Democracy; and his attachment to the Union, 
without regard to North or South, canoot be questioned for 
a moment." • i 

^010, these same journals are slandering Colo- i 
nel Fremont. 

Did they speak the truth then, or do they speak I 
it now .' Let an intelligent people judge. I 

Mr. Chairman, the hero who now leads the I 
columns of freedom's army is no ordinary person- j 
age. When a mere boy, beside his widowed 
mother, he stood over the grave of a father, and 
with her was left to travel the lone vale of pen- 
ury and want. With an energy of character, I 
which has ever been his guiding star of genius, 
he successfully grappled with every obstacle, i 
Laughing at seeming impossibilities, he fearlessly 1 
braved every storm, and plodding his way alom;, I 
satiated his intellectual aspirations at the fountains j 
of human science and learning. j 

Arriving at maturer years, in selecting his pro- ' 
fession he avoided the dull routine and retired I 
walks which are connected with a life of ease, | 
and comparative luxury and indolence. In mark- 
ing out his way, he chose not an orbit which 
lies in circular lines around a given point, but, i 



011 898 285 fl 



piating the 
his soaring 



shot off into the track- 
id space in search of new 
f God. When contem- 
it<t domain of a mighty Republic, 
enius was not content to sit down 
and idle away life in airy dreams and theoretical 
speculatir>ns; but, with a heroism and a bravery 
that challenged the admiration of the world, he 
pointed his way through regions upon which the 
light of civilization had never dawned. With lijs 
hardy pioneers around him, he plodded on through 
valleys where no human voice had ever echoed 
save the war-hoop of the wild native. He scaled 
mountains where none but the footstep of the 
savage had ever trod. Amid the scorching heat of 
summer and the wild and furiousTjlasts of" winter, 
he has opened to civilization and settlement a 
vast empire hitherto unexplored and unknown. 

"Countless as the stars of heaven, or the sands 
upon the sea shore," are the myriads of human 
beings who, within the centuries to come, shall 
follow in the way which, with the aid of celestial 
light and the telescopic glass, he first located and 
made plain. With a few dauntless spirits around 
him, he first unfurled the stars and stripes upon 
the far off shores of tfie western ocean, and by his 
indomitable bravery and heroism, gave to his 
country a free empire upon the shores of the 
Pacific. 

His career as#a statesman, though brief, has 
I been brilliant. His official record contains no 
I word or line the friends of constitutional freedom 
j would wish to blot. With a Christian character 
and moral reputation pure and spotless as the 
I driven snows which whistled around his track- 
I less path upon the bleak clitFs of the Rocky 
j Mountains, he unites the integrity of an honest 
1 nfian, blended with the pure light of an exalted 
I patriotism. 

Fresh from their own ranks the people have 
j selected the young hero, whose brilliant career 
I have briefly noticed, for their standard-bearer 
in the ensuing campaign. 

Already is his nomination responded to with 
an enthusiasm never before known. Among the 
descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers who landed 
upon Plymouth Rock, and made our own New 
England the " Eden " of the world, there is a 
perfect " ground swell." The " Empire " State, 
with her teeming millions, the Old " Keystone 
of the arch," and the smaller States in the great 
center of the Union, are, in unbroken columns, 
marching to the " music which keeps step with 
the Union," under the flag of the pathfinder; and 
in the great Northwest, " Freedom and Fre- 
mont " are sweeping in every direction, like au- 
tumnal fires over their boundless prairies. Sir, 
the people themselves have declared war against 
this Administration, and the party thatare labor- 
ing to perpetuate it. They have themselves taken 
the field. In every breeze that floats through the 
heavens, you hear the deep-toned rumblings of 
freedom's artillery: 

" Legions on legions brighten all the shores. 
Then banners rise, and cannon-signal roars ; 
Then peals the warlike thunder of the drum, 
Thrills the loud fife, the trumpet flourish pours. 
And patriot hopes awake, and doubts are dumb, 
For bold in freedom's cause, the bands of freedom come." 



Printed at the Office of the Congressional Globe. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



011 898 285 A 



